A Footstep Away From Heaven
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: During the end of ROTSS, Sue gains some insight from someone she never thought she'd see again...but is this the end of everything?


**This is set during the end showdown scene of Rise of the Silver Surfer. Emmz, that final moment is for you!!!**

**A Footstep Away From Heaven**

Sue felt her mind swirling with an invisible mist. She was no longer wearing her Fantastic Four uniform, bur rather her more usual attire of black suit pants and a smart blouse. She couldn't see where she was, and all that she knew that was she clearly wasn't in the Shanghai street anymore. The coldness of the air hat came from a cloud like material which floated all around her only served to remind her that she clearly wasn't in Reed's arms anymore either. Remembering what had happened as she had lain in Reed's arms reminded her what was happening. Victor's spear, filled with cosmic energy from the Surfer's board, had pierced her chest. Straight through, she remembered. Looking down sharply, she saw no blood staining her chest anymore.

That's when it hit her.

Was she…_dead_?

Her heart thumped harder and harder, or at least, it felt like it did. Could you still feel your heart beating in fear if you were dead? However, her anticipation wasn't aided by the appearance of a shadowy figure in the distance. Through the cloud material, she couldn't make out who, or what, this figure belonged to. However, as they got closer, she could see that they were dressed similarly to her, smartly, yet with an air of casual living around them.

"Do not be afraid, Susan," the figure spoke, still concealed in the cloud.

But the voice that spoke to her was a voice that she recognised. A voice from her unforgotten childhood. A voice that she had longed to hear again for many years.

"Mom?" she asked, wearily taking a step into the deeper cloud towards the familiar voice.

In what seemed like no time at all, the figure was before Sue in the mist, and she finally got a look at the person up close. The gently blonde curls and eyes that gleamed with a youth never lost stared back at her; a face that she had seen only in dreams for many years. "You're really here," she smiled softly, falling into the arms of Mary Storm, her late mother.

"Susan," she sighed happily in reply. "My darling daughter."

Their embrace didn't last tremendously long, but it was furious, and certainly enough to make Sue forget what had apparently brought her to…wherever it was she was. It reminded her of when she was scared in the middle of the night, and her mother would comfort her until the fear passed. She remembered how her mother would hold her this tight every time she came home from school with another achievement. But then she'd died. She'd been taken from them in a horrible car accident that should have had nothing to do with her.

And that's what made Sue pull away from her mother's arms.

Realising that she was, in fact, in the company of her dead mother, she feared her own state of being. Reluctantly, she pulled out of her mother's embrace. "Am I dead?" she asked, her voice choking on the words that escaped her mouth like a river of poison to her mother's ears. In this empty area, her fear reverberated off the cloud that surrounded them and echoed endlessly. Mary sighed heavily, taking her hands in her own.

"You are not dead," she began.

"But _you're _here…how can I be here with you if I'm not--"

"You're in a state of being that is neither dead nor alive," Mary told her. "The fate of the world is at stake, and you, your brother and you friends are the only hope for salvation. It is not your time to go yet, so your mind has been sent to this place," she said, gesturing around them to the empty space.

"Where are we?" Sue asked, following her mother's gaze as she looked from the heavenly glow over her shoulder, and then to the typical, yet frightening, dark red glow behind her.

"In heaven, we call it the Plain of the Lost," Mary revealed. "Trapped minds dwell here until their fate is decided. If they are rescued, or they recover, they are free to awaken in their bodies and returned to life; and I've got my fingers crossed that this will be your fate," she said, before continuing. "If they are lost forever in the real world, then their actions are weighted against each other to decide whether you walk into the light…or into the darkness."

Sue gulped in fear, but pushed it aside quickly. "Reed's got me, he was holding me, he was with me," she remembered. "He won't let me just die," her voice was filled with confidence, but her eyes were filling with tears all the while. "He'll find a way to fix this."

Mary chuckled lightly. "Oh, yes. I've been watching you with him. He's been very good to you," she mused. "In fact, his mother has been watching you both as well."

"Reed's mother is here?" Sue asked, looking over her mother's shoulder but seeing no one.

"If by 'here', you mean heaven, then yes, she is here," Mary nodded. "We can see how much you love each other, and it was hard for all of us to watch when you were both so heartbroken after college."

"'All of us'?" Sue questioned.

Mary smiled gently. "You two have quiet the audience here as well,"

She smiled, "Thank you."

"For what?" Mary asked casually, as all talk of death was forgotten.

"Your blessing, I guess," Sue stated simply.

Mary rolled her eyes. "Honey, whether you had my blessing or not, you still would have married the man," she pointed out. "But if it's any help, yes, you have my blessing. Please marry the man soon so I can call him my son-in-law."

She smiled, and hugged her mother again, only this time, there was a strange sensation in her chest where the spear had hit her. She pulled back, confused. "What's happening to me?" She asked. "I know I should be in pain, but I just feel…different."

Mary sighed, and Sue noticed for the first time that, not too far away, a fountain had begun to fill with water from an invisible source. She'd not sen it there before, and wondered whether it had appeared there as suddenly as her mother had. Mary took her daughter's hand, and lead her over to the fountain.

It was beautiful, filled with water that was shimmering in the light that seemed to come from the radiance of the fountain itself. There were tiny flowers scattered over the surface of the pearly water, which caused tiny ripples with their petals as they floated around lazily. The fountain itself was made of the purest marble. The white stone was not extremely warn over it's delicate pattern of cherubs and angels that rose from the centre, but it was still silky and smooth in appearance.

Sue was breathless when she saw it close up. "What is this?" she asked in a whisper, overcome by the astounding peace that she felt in the presence of this fountain.

"It was forged by the highest angels," Mary told her, having heard the tale so many times now that she knew it by heart, "the left and right hand of God. It's a way of seeing those we love, but leave behind. Most of the time we see good things; we see our families, our children, our loved ones…but today I looked into it and saw something I'll never forget," she muses sadly.

"You saw." Sue realised simply.

Mary nodded. "Seeing your daughter die in the arms of the man who loves her, when it is not her time, and in a painful way which no one should suffer is something that I'll never forget." Sue bowed her head for a moment, almost ashamed that her mother that seen her like that; weak and pained in her final moments. "However," Mary continued, laying her hand on Sue's shoulder and kissing her forehead, "knowing that you were in your fiancé's arms, knowing that you were with the man who loved you…made it slightly easier to bear."

Sue hugged her mother tightly, tears leaking from the corner of her eyes. Although accepting that she might be dead forever was hard, she still felt the pangs of sympathy directed at the man she wanted to marry. Reed. God, he must be in so much pain. She knew that she couldn't have done what he did. She didn't think she had it in her to hold his dying body, and whisper to him words of the future even though it was clear they weren't going to meet them. She didn't think she had the strength to do what she did.

"I love him so much, mom," she said, her voice breaking with the strain of the tears. "And now I might not get to tell him that again."

Mary directed her daughter's gaze towards the water inside the fountain. Moments ago, she'd explained that it had been built so that families could watch their loved ones. The water shimmered for a moment, and Mary took her daughter's hand, dipping her fingertips into the water. As if recognising who she was, the water twisted strangely, in a way that she had never seen water move before, and on the surface, between the floating petals, she saw the Shanghai street. She saw Ben, trying her best to console her brother, at which her mother sighed at the sight of her grieving son, and Reed, holding her lifeless body close. From nowhere, she heard voices.

_I can't believe it. Not her…I knew one of us had to go first…but…just not Susie. She's the glue. She keeps us together. _Ben's voice, rocky and gruff as usual but laced with disbelief.

_Why isn't he doing something? Reed fixes everything. He has to fix this. Why isn't she waking up? He has to fix her. We can't just leave her to…she can't…she's just not…no, she can't be. Come on, Sue, move, open your eyes, yell at me, just do something. Something. Anything. I don't care if you get over here and slap me round the back of the head for something I didn't even do. Just don't….just don't leave me. Everyone else has left me. You promised you wouldn't leave me as well…_

"Oh, Johnny," Sue whispered, at her brother's heartbroken internal monologue.

_This can't be happening…_

"Reed," She whispered breathlessly.

_Please, Sue, don't do this. Don't leave me. I love you. I love you so much. I didn't tell you enough. I should have told you more. Please, just wake up so I can tell you again. Come back to me. I'll do better, I promise. I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. I could have done more. I wasn't here soon enough. I should have been. You have to wake up….we've got to get married, remember? You're going to wear that beautiful dress…we'll have the flowers, the china patterns. I don't care who's there. I don't care if no one's there except for us…I just…I can't lose you, Sue. I can't do this without you._

She saw the silver glares cross them, and the Surfer entered the scene. She couldn't understand what was going on, but he then placed his hand over Sue's body. Before the fountain, Sue felt a strange warmth spreading through her.

"What's happening?" Sue asked, as her body began to feel pulled even though she wasn't moving.

"Our time here is ending, Susan," Mary told her sombrely, as she embraced her daughter, clinging to her and knowing, this time, that it would be the last time she held her. This time, though, Sue found that she couldn't feel her mother's arms. Her outline was fading too…or was it hers that was disappearing? "It's time to save the world again,"

"I'm not sure we can this time," Sue said, her voice thick with her tears.

"You're not doing it alone, sweetheart," Mary reminded her. "You're returning to Reed, to Johnny, to Benjamin…you're not alone. I have faith in you. I know you can do this."

"Mom-"

"You were born to do great things, Susie. You were born to make a difference," Mary said gently, her voice fading away as she appeared to be returning to the distance she had come from.

"Mom, I love you," she gasped out, not knowing whether she'd ever get another chance to tell her that.

"I'll always love you. I'm so proud of you," Mary replied, in the moments before she faded completely. "Tell your brother that, as well."

When Mary was gone, and Sue was once again completely alone, she sobbed uncontrollably. She was afraid, terrified even, that they wouldn't be able to save the world this time.

And then, she didn't have a choice.

----

"Sue….Sue, please don't leave me…"

She opened her eyes a fraction and looked around her.

"Sue?"

The Shanghai street surrounded her, and directly above her was Reed's concerned face. Above them, the sky was no longer thundering. They'd done it. They'd saved the world.

"Hey," she whispered to him, as if there were nothing else to say.

With relief filling his face, Reed sighed. "Hey," he mimicked.

He helped her to her feet, and within seconds she found herself scooped up in her brother's arms. "Don't you EVER scare me like that again," he told her, and only she could detect the sound of unshed tears in her brother's voice.

"Johnny," she said simply, hugging him back just as furiously.

"I mean it. You die again and I'll bring you back just to kick your ass," he told her, pulling away slightly, but she held him in them embrace still, so that she could whisper to him without the others hearing.

"Mom loves you, Johnny," she told him, and his embrace stiffened at her words. "She'll always love you, and she's so proud of you," Johnny held her closer, sighing heavily. "She wanted you to know that."

"Thank you," he whispered back to her.

Smiling up at the sky above her shoulder, Sue wondered how much of a show Sue's mother was having about this. Her two children, actually getting along.

That certainly wasn't something she'd seen in her lifetime, but as Sue had learned that evening - heaven time was a little more insightful


End file.
